Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson (1 January 1953-) was Governor of New Mexico (R) from 1 January 1995 to 1 January 2003, succeeding Bruce King and preceding Bill Richardson.

Biography
Gary Johnson was born in Minot, North Dakota in 1953, but he went to high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He founded one of the state's largest construction companies, and he entered politics for the first time by running for Governor of New Mexico in 1994 on a low-tax, anti-crime platform, promising a "common sense business approach". He cut the 10% annual growth in the budget, and he won re-election in 1998 with promises of school voucher reforms and cannabis decriminalization. He adhered to an anti-tax policy, using a record number of gubernatorial vetoes; he used more vetoes than the other 49 governors in the USA at the time. The term-limited Johnson retired as Governor in 2003, and, in 2011, he switched his affiliation to the Libertarian Party in order to run for President in 2012 and, later, in 2016. His campaign emphasized the US public debt, a balanced budget, protection of civil liberties, military non-interventionism, replacement of the income tax with FairTax, and opposition to the War on Drugs. Both of his runs for President were unsuccessful, as was his 2018 US Senate campaign, which he lost to Democratic incumbent Martin Heinrich with 15.38% of the vote, landing him in third place.